Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 10:46 AM UTC
‘Progressivism’ isn’t ‘woke’; isn’t ‘left’; isn’t ‘cultural Marxism’. It is a market segment.
‘Identity work’ through consumption is the bread and butter of Post-Fordist capitalism (and has been for 60+ years).
(Quoted tweet about Target's Pride section:
@WallpaperRipper, tweet 1660495980041498625 (
archive))
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 10:55 AM UTC
Thin-sliced market modelling accelerated via networked market research (data harvesting and behavioural prediction models) from c. 1995 and gave Post-Fordist marketing philosophy enhanced access to private domains of our lives (like sexuality, hopes and fears) 2005ish onward.
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 10:58 AM UTC
Post-Fordist capitalism takes over when a mass market is saturated. Where do you take car manufacturing when everyone has a black T-Ford?
You create aspirations to ‘express your individuality’ through consumption: other models, colours, brands, etc.
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:01 AM UTC
A lot has been said, sung, written and acted out on that subject.
*Gestures vaguely at everything subcultural or critical in the Western world since late 1950s/early 1960s Beat culture*
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:06 AM UTC
The populist aspect of capitalism depends, to fulfil its promise, on constant expansion. When markets stagnate, a not-small subset of those who were told ‘things can only get better, and especially with Surf/Nike/Ford/whatever’ get disgruntled and given to various protestations.
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:09 AM UTC
Selling hope and ever-expanding hope horizons is a key element of marketing, and capitalism-as-ideology (which isn’t the same object as the historical phenomenon).
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:10 AM UTC
(It just is. Even, and *especially* those who work in the industry, know this, whatever they choose to call it.)
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:20 AM UTC
Raw sketch of the ‘hope horizon’:
1930s: Atomic
1940s: *normal service interrupted*
1950s: *it’s complicated*
1960s: Technology and space
1970s: Technology and sex
1980s: Technology and money
1990s: Technology and future
2000s: *bzzplingbzzzbeep*
2010s: Technology and the body
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:23 AM UTC
The body, and fears, hopes and perceived needs associated with the body (including sex), is a market. Marketing isn’t just advertising.
Promotional culture *engulfs* us.
Homunculus 

(@tryingattimes) · May 23, 2023 · 11:26 AM UTC
None of us are immune, but the more impressionable/vulnerable you are, the harder it is to square your physical reality with the dream factory that is promotional culture. It’s not designed to satisfy you - it’s designed to make you want to change yourself through consumption.